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Good phone it just you can do so much better

When I first brought this phone I loved it. To look at it was not spectacular, just a basic rectangle shape completely black and it is quite a slim phone. The problem is with the Lumia is that it has been so quickly overtaken by various other phones on the market. As a mid range mobile it keeps its head above the water.

With access to the internet fairly rapid and quick access to emails it was a little dream, showing it off to friends I was happy. The touch screen is a good feature and you can get even quicker access to apps through a variety of little squares that appear on the home screen. It is excellent for social interaction in that sense because by clicking on the twitter on facebook for example it gives you access with 3 seconds. Being a windows phone it though it doesn't allow access to all the apps I like though. For example I like to use internet banking with Natwest and it does not allow you to download the app as it is only available on Iphone or Android. Things like this are major drawback.

The apps it does have to offer is beginning to grow but it you have to ask yourself why wait when you can have it all on other models.

Now I have had the phone a while the battery life has begun to fade. It won't charge completely and the battery fades rather rapidly. I have had it on a 24 month contract so I suppose it is coming to end of its life as a phone but this is worth bearing in mind if you are looking to buy one second hand. In its earlier days the battery life was rather good. It would drain like most phone if you used the apps constantly but you could easily get a days worth out of the phone.

The camera is good the audio on the phone is excellent making it really good for listening and watching youtube videos. For me it competes with phones such as the HTC but it has been overtaken even by its own brand and other phones now so for me there are better phones than this on the market.

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I have had this phone for about a year now and i think its the best phone i think ive ever had, a good design and not even a bomb could damage this unlike other phones, a good touchscreen with ample features, i doubt Nokia can be beaten for quality but the only downfall with this phone is the battery life and ackward plug which i found a bit tricky getting out the wall, the memory is so vast i doubt i will be able to fill it up, camera is ideal for me, always get a signal. 9 out of 10, the internet is rather good but doing surveys can be a problem, i bought my phone for £399 and i doubt Apple or Samsung can beat this mobile phone

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A decent smartphone full of quirky creativity that's easy to use, but not perfect.

I replaced my last smartphone, a Samsung Galaxy Ace, around Christmas last year. There was so much choice that it was hard to figure out what would be the best option, so I spent ages online looking at deals and in stores getting a feel for different models. I had set my budget at more of an entry to mid-range smartphone, so £100-150 max. Being tempted to push the boat out and try something a little different, I went for the Nokia 800 running Windows. Although at the higher end of my budget, I'm glad I opted for this one as it's definitely lived up to expectations. There are, of course, a few downsides that I'll cover, but all in all it's been a pretty impressive smartphone.

... The Brand ...

Having only owned one Nokia previously, the almightly 3310 some many many years ago, I wasn't sure what to expect. The brand is a strong contender in the mobile market, but having become more of a Samsung user I wanted to see for myself what Nokia could do. The 800 is part of the Lumia range and when I saw this in a phone store I was also shown a slightly cheaper and similar version (can't remember the model number, apologies!); at around £40 cheaper, however, it was also far more limited and the screen quality was instantly noticeable as being weaker. Comparing the 800 to other makes and models of a similar specification, it seems like a reasonable price and from a brand that often comes with recommendations.

... The Looks ...

The 800 is sleek and smart to look at, though still appears reasonably robust. It weighs in at 142g and has a height of 116.5mm, width 61.2mm and thickness of 12.1mm. It fits well in my hand and feels 'just right' in terms of size and weight. I've known some smartphones to seem too plastic-y and fragile, whilst others have been too heavy and cumbersome, hardly being able to hold it in my rather small paws because it's too wide! The screen size is also adequate at 3.7", which I find allows for easy navigation of menus, use of keys for texting, and image size for watching video clips etc.

At the top is the slide/clip that opens up to be able to both charge your phone and/or get your SIM card in. My bug bear was the initially when I got this phone, it didn't seem to work. There's a knack to pushing this little thing down and sliding it across to make the SIM holder pop up, you put the SIM card in, and you push down and slide back across. This piece of plastic this slides and opens upwards is quite small and dainty, and being fragile means that there's 10 times more likelihood of snapping it off or damaging it. Despite following the instructions, the stupid thing seemed to get jammed after I got it open and the SIM card in. I took it to the 02 store and they were completely useless, and didn't do anything to help other than say it was my fault! I wasn't entirely buying this as I don't recall the latch lying flat I bought the phone, which I mentioned, but they were quick to dismiss this idea. Anyway, I took it to a local phone shop that sell accessories and do care plans etc for mobiles, and they very kindly removed the latch and replaced it for me. All for free (thankfully, as I wouldn't have wanted to pay for what ended up being a lot of hassle!!) Apparently this has happened a lot with the 800s, so be aware when doing this for the first time. Whilst most of the phone looks sleek and feels robust, the latch for the SIM card isn't!

I really like the style of this, probably in part because it's quite understated, and because it looks quite stylish. With more squared edges and its rectangular shape, rather than anything rounded, it has a certain sleekness to it despite its price and being more plastic than metal. It doesn't look or feel tacky.

The plastic and screen were elements I was worried about getting scratched, so usually the first thing I do is get a case or a cover. The case I bought I got from eBay (searching for Nokia Lumia 800 leather case); it was only a few pounds and has a tab that you pull up to bring the phone out of the case. It keeps it safe, but I guess at that price you get what you pay for and so I wasn't super impressed. Finding good quality cases or covers is a little more difficult for the 800, especially when the market is dominated by iPhone accessories, so the best bet usually is eBay. Having said that, I stopped using the case and to my surprise, my phone has been pretty much fine in my bag and pocket ever since. It doesn't seem to be the type of quality casing to scratch or scuff easily, and the screen is very robust as there are, as of yet, no scratches or marks of any kind.

... The screen ...

As I've mentioned with the display, it's a good size in my opinion, and it's also good quality in terms of colours and images. It has WVGA 800x480 resolution and TrueColour (24-bit/16M) display colours. The display comes with brightness control, Corning Gorilla Glass, ambient light sensor and tactile feedback. Okay, so it all sounds rather technical. In a nutshell, the colours look bright and vivid as they should, and images have a high degree of clarity and crispness to them.

... The Camera ...

Having a decent camera was on my list of criteria because I always carry my phone with me so having it handy for pictures of 'spontaneous' moments is important. This comes with an 8MP camera, which has a flash and effects options. To use, there's a button on the side to open the application which allows you to start taking pics instantly. You always need to swipe up to get past the screensaver first, but I like that getting ready to take a picture is still nice and quick. You can zoom (though you lose a lot of quality doing this) and adjust the options accordingly very easily. I find that taking a picture is pretty quick in terms of shutter speed and time for the phone to re-adjust to a new image. The pictures come out very clear and I've been fairly impressed so far with photos taken during the day or in darker situations. The one problem can be during the day when it's sunny but when your subject doesn't have light on them, and when the flash then doesn't really seem to make much difference. However, this has only happened once so far where the pictures have turned out rubbish, so I'm happy.

You can view these by swiping across to see full-sized versions, and on each you can use to fingers to expand the image by zooming in and getting a closer look (if you dare!). There are different ways of viewing the images in the sense that you can drag an old image over and still see the moving images in front of the camera, which I thought was quite funky, or get a tile view of photos in your album. I find it's pretty easy and intuitive to use, and helps you be creative and more spontaneous in your taking and sharing of photos. So far then, I've been pretty happy with the camera!

... The Battery ...

Unlike most phones I've had in the past, this doesn't have a removable battery. I wasn't quite sure what to think of this at first and it's still not something I'm entirely comfortable with, though I've had no problems thus far. It's an integrated rechargeable battery and the spec suggests a standby time of 265 hours and talk time of 13h (when using 2G), with a max standby time of 13 days. I don't tend to believe what's given as 'recommended' or 'usual' battery life suggestions as they often seem to be less than we're led to believe. With average use of this, meaning some Wi-Fi applications, texting, calls, etc, I tend to charge every day, though it's not always needed. I can usually get away with just a quick top up charge in the morning before grabbing the phone to take to work, so the battery lasts with my amount of use fairly easily over 2 days. This obviously varies depending on how much you use it and what you're using it for. As with most smartphones, battery life isn't spectacular and you're probably looking at daily charges. Charging is, however, nice and easy with the charge provided and can be done either through a wall socket or via USB when connected to your laptop/PC.

... Connectivity ...

This comes with a USB adapter (which forms part of the wall charging plug, so you don't have twice the amount of cables!) and it also has Bluetooth. Now, this is the part that gets on my nerves a little bit. I'm a huge fan of drag and drop. You know, plug something in and just 'drag' over what you want from a file on your computer and 'drop' it in to the phone file that comes up under My Computer. But no, as with Apple the Nokia 800 all but forces you to use software too. To transfer files to/from your phone, you'll need to download Zune, which is easy enough to do, though using it I find can be less straightforward. It's reasonably intuitive in some respects but not all, meaning the simple act of getting photos off my phone, or trying to change my ringtone, can be a long and frustrating process.

... Usability ...

Having used Android previously, coming to Windows took a little adjustment. I say little, however, because it really was quite intuitive to get to grips with. The home screen, if you will, has tiles that take you to all of the things you'd expect, such as contacts and messages. Swiping this across with your finger provides a full list of all applications. You can quite easily then customise your home screen so that all of the tiles you most use or want most readily available are set up as you want them and in whatever order you want them. I loved this aspect because it made the phone more geared to me and what I use, and it's quick and simple to do. To put the phone to sleep or wake it up there's a small silver button to the right hand side. You then need to slide up on the screen to get rid of the screensaver. There's the camera button below this, and a sound button above to adjust the volume of music / ringtones / in call volume etc. On the left hand side are buttons to zoom in/out on the camera. Nice and straight forward!

In terms of responsiveness, I find the phone opens, uses and changes settings, screens and applications pretty quickly. It doesn't take an age to load up your messages, then realise you need to make a call or put 3G Internet on to send an email. It's smooth and the phone generally seems able to adjust and keep up with me well. Some applications that I've got from the market can take a little longer to load, such as Vouchercloud, but this is more due to accessing the Internet and the app itself rather than the phone.

... Problems, Houston? ...

Yes, there has been a problem. When connecting your phone and using Zune, it sometimes suggests updates. I did this once and it seemed to take forever to do, but once you start you cannot disconnect your phone so you have to wait it out. I did patiently wait and thought everything was fine. A few hours later when I went to use my phone it froze, wouldn't do anything, and I was a bit baffled what to do as holding the power button down did nothing and it's not like you can take the battery out either. It then turned off. And wouldn't come back to life. This panicked me because I needed to use it, but even if I didn't, it would still have been a concern. I hadn't had the phone for long and not really being sure what to do with it, I Googled the problem to find I wasn't alone. However, the fix was quite fairly simple though I'm not 100% sure what actually fixed it. I plugged it back in to my laptop and it didn't do anything. Disconnected and tried again, loading Zune and checking for updates (again). Nothing. I left the phone there and went away for a while in frustration. When I came back, the phone was on and taking charge from the laptop. Being a bit weary, I left it for a while longer and then disconnected, and it suddenly seemed just fine and back to normal. This seems a bit temperamental to me; I'm not sure if it's just coincidence but I'm going to blame it on the update or put it down to being just a 'one off bad day' for the phone as it hasn't happened since. Not entirely pleasing, but as it hasn't happened since and all phones can have their glitch problems, I'm not thinking it's too big a deal.

... Media ...

The Lumia 800 has 512MB of memory (mass memory 16GB), which I find is enough for my needs. I can store plenty of photos and I've added several apps, so I'm happy. I don't use my phone for music so I can't really comment too much on this, but it has the capability to do this and transfer files via Zune, or use the app to download them.It comes with pre-downloaded apps and all the usual bits and pieces you'd expect, such as a calculator and calendar. Facebook was already on there, along with the app store marketplace and a few others. Anything you want to download you can get from the former, which I'll talk about in a minute. The use of media on here was quite impressive in my opinion for the mid entry range; it's geared towards social networks, contacts, video clips, websites etc. It's all on there and ready to use, set up in a way that enables you to get the most out of what's available.

There's an app section that allows you to see your 'profile' and collate all of your social network sites and emails. I thought this was quite a funky idea if you're a bit of a social butterfly or just very connected with keeping up with what's going on. You can do updates, see what's new, get all of our messages, all from the one place.

Setting up email accounts and social network accounts was really easy to do and the info is stored so that you only need to do so once. I've never really had any problems, though sometimes apps can be a little temperamental, it's never more so than you'd get with any device.

... The Marketplace - Apps Galore? ...

One of the bugbears with Windows is that the marketplace seems a little behind the curve. Apple stormed in first and claimed the monopoly. Along came Android and kept up a good pace. Then Windows joined in the marching band and still seems to be struggling to keep up. You get full access to the store and all apps, but the apps available on Windows mobiles and in the marketplace is still somewhat limited. You may notice on some website where the app version is available that often it's just for Apple or Android users. For instance, I can't get a banking app from my bank, nor can I get the Quidco app, both of which I was quite surprised about as they're big brands. It's been a while since Windows introduced their store and mobiles so it's a little disappointing to see the accessibility is still pretty limited.

In addition, some apps don't seem to work, though this seems to be an issue with the game developer. The case in mind is Words With Friends, the geeky game I can't help but love. I used it all the time on Android (the beautifully free version!) but then when I got the Windows phone I found there was no free version. I nearly paid for the full version, but then I looked at the reviews. For months the game has been glitchy and simply doesn't work, but it's never been fixed! People still pay for it and are bitterly disappointed at having wasted precious pounds on something Zinga or whoever can't be bothered to sort out. Point is, is just seems that whilst the apps are there, the development and expansion seems to be a little slow.

... Overall Verdict ...

Okay, so the Lumia 800 definitely isn't perfect, but it's still quite an impressive mid-entry level smartphone and the best I've owned thus far. For the price, you seem to get a lot of features and the workings of the phone itself seem quite quick and effective. The Windows apps are disappointing, the SIM latch is too fragile and I have had a 'moment' with thinking the phone had died. But when weighing it up for the price and what I wanted this phone for, it's ticked most of the boxes; good for entertainment, relatively reliable, looks sleek, good camera, novel features, quick to use, and intuitive to navigate. Recommended for those who want the features without the heafty price tag.

Selling for around £140 when I bought this / now also at £200 SIM-Free at Amazon

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A great idea, but fails to adapt to a fast paced life

I was drawn to this phone due to the sleek appearance and this windows operating system that the phone had. At first I was extremely happy with the features of the phone, such as the calender- that allowed me to keep on top of commitments, and the windows live games- that allowed me to challenge my friends and kept competition alive.After a few weeks, though, the flaws started to appear. The phone turned off, although fully charged and would not turn on. Luckily, I was in close proximity to the store that I purchased it from and I managed to find out a way to turn the phone back on if it happened in the future. Unfortunately that wasn't the last of the problem. I could count at least 20 times the problem occurred, and on one fateful day the phone refused to turn on. I had to send my phone off for repair and it came back with a new lease of life. The internet browser, internet explorer, is also a major problem with the phone. You cannot get another browser so the problem cannot be overcome. If I am on websites, the browser will crash and return to the main screen, leaving all trace of the page I was on gone and me having to start again. This problem happens daily, and a year on, I still cannot fix the problem.The phone is not all bad though. The camera produces stunning pictures, that have a professional quality about them. The pictures can be easily sent to social networking sites, and can be synced to the computer using the Zune software.The phone, overall, has major flaws, but I believe that if the problems could be fixed, it would be my ideal phone.

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Good phone If you can get the right contract.

Ok, I brought this phone when it first came out last year (March 2012). I've had it well over a year and I'm going to go into detail about the advantages, disadvantages and if I had any problems with the phone.

---Design---First off I'm going to talk about the design of the phone and the material it's made out of. The phone itself is very slim and light. A lot slimmer and lighter than the Iphone in fact.The Nokia Lumia 800 is made from polycarbonate. Which is a durable, but scratch resistant material. The screen is made from a material called Gorilla Glass. It's a very tough material and your screen will not get scratched.

--- First Impressions ---My first impressions were confusion and excitement. My previous phone can only be described as a "Brick". So all this new technology was new to me. The booklet itself which came with the phone wasn't really helpful in fact. I had to read it about five times to get my head around everything.It took me around two days to get used to everything on the phone. So be patient with it. It took me around a good month before I knew everything what this phone could do.

--- Features --The features are all pretty slick and stylish. I love the scrolling across the screen to get to the other apps very easily. Plus, the camera has a quick button shortcut on the side of the phone. This is very useful if you want to take a photograph of something quickly. I found reading emails were particular easy. Easier than my laptop in fact. I just love how fast I can go from one app to another, Very good!

--- Apps ---The apps for me, were one of the disadvantages of this phone. Apps such as Twitter & Youtube didn't run very well. I kept getting error messages all the time from them. Plus apps such as spotify and xbox suddenly stopped working for me. I'm not sure if this is the phone or the apps. So i'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

-- Camera --Camera is very detailed. The maximum resolution is 8MP. The detail on items such as wine glasses, ornaments & other small objects is fantastic on this camera. Although details on landscapes and holiday photos don't seem to compare so well with real digital cameras. But, it's still a brilliant camera.

-- Did I have any problems with the phone? ---I didn't have too many problems. Just the one problem where the phone didn't charge properly. I plugged it in and gave it a full charge for 24 hours. Took it off charge and the battery was charged at about 25%. It did this for a couple of weeks. It was so frustrating as I only had the phone at that time for a couple of months. Due to these problems, I had to take the phone back into the shop. The staff were very helpful and promised me that it will take no longer than two weeks for the phone to be fixed. I waited two weeks and I got a phone call to say it has been fixed. I thought I was going to get charged for it, but they stated that there would be no extra cost as it came with a 12 month guarantee, very pleased!

-- Overall impressions --Overall I think it's a good phone. Not brilliant but not poor either. I'm still under contract until March 2014. I pay £25 a month. I think this is a bit too excessive for what it does. I wish I waited for it to come down in price instead of rushing into the shop to buy it.If my contract was around £15 a month I would give it a 8/10. But due to this I can only give it a 7/10.If you're after an alternative from the Iphone, then this phone is for you. Just make sure you get a cheap contract!

7/10

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great phone with few issues

with the help of my far more tech savvy daughter i was looking for a Phone for myself . selling features for me was the robust indestructible nature that we all know and love about Nokia . i have been known to drop Phones on a regular basis so always a bonus . the cover for the charger port the only damage after a year of hard use

the windows operating system was in my Daughters opinion a drawback but i have found it easy to use sincs with laptop with no issues. the Tiles are easy to operate and adapt to how you use the phone .

apps are the only drawback so far not enough apps available yet but you have basics and version of everything you want and need .

zune media player not my favorite but works fine

over all great phone a few drawbacks but as windows get bigger in the marketplace these will hopefully improve .

battery life i guess is about average i get a full days use and do use internet and 3g quite a lot

sound quality on phone is great as a music player can sometimes be a bit Tinny

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Good phone for the average user

I bought this phone for my partner after his blackberry was on its last legs.

The aspect of the phone that enticed my partner to buy it was the windows operating system he had seen it on TV and he was not let down, he really enjoys using it.

A feature of the operating system he likes are the tiles because he can choose which ones he likes and personalise them to his needs. Such as moving them around so the one he uses near the top and can even create a tile for contacts so he can call without scrolling through the phone list.

The camera on the phone is really good nice and clear photos, it doesn't compare to a stand alone digital camera however, good enough for a phone and everyday photos.

The phone is really easy to use and navigate around with not to much difficulty once you have got used to the windows operating system.

As with all touch screen phones the battery life isn't amazing however he is able to use it all day for texting calling, browsing the internet, and facebook and it lasts most of the day.

The downside to the phone is the lack of apps available on the app store compared to android or iphone for example internet banking apps of some banks aren't available on the windows phone but are on others.

Over all it is a good phone for the average user if you are looking for a all bells and whistles phone this probably isn't for you however it suits him and his needs, it is worth it for the price of it.

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Does what it is supposed to, but not sure I'd get another one. Pretty average,

The Nokia Lumia 800 is my first foray into the world of smart phones. I already had an Ipod Touch, so was familiar with the Apple smartness and usability but when I saw a great contract deal with Tesco Mobile (15pm) I couldn't resist. I had previously seen other people with Nokia Windows Phone, and admired them from a distance so was excited to finally be able to get one.

The phone is black (although I think it comes in other colours), with a large touchscreen and three touch sensitive buttons at the bottom - Home, Back and Search. On the top is the Aux port, and flip cover reveals charger port. At the side is volume +/-, lock/ unlock button, and camera button. Its probably slightly heavier than an Iphone, although check spec.

This review will probably be updated every so often as I discover things that I love or hate about it (only had it a couple of months so far), and I'll stick to bullet points to make it more concise. So it may not be comprehensive straight away - Its hard to remember everything in one go hehe.

The handset itself:+ Rugged! It comes with its own protective case, and I have dropped it on to hard floors several times with no cracks to the screen or anything. Quite impressive really.+ Good quality camera with zoom, flash and movie mode. Everything you need from a phone camera. Also, good apps available for extras like filter effects etc.+ Ringtone/ alert volume is separate from music volume which is great.+ Good amount of memory, I've got a fair bit of music and lots of apps with still plenty of memory left to spare. Wouldn't need any more to be honest. - Fiddly flap at the top to hide charging hole, really flimsy and had bent by getting caught on something when I hadn't even owned it a week. I don't really see why it needs covering anyway to be honest.- Battery life not great - I do play games on it (only turn based though, so probably about 20 mins at a time) and music, and occasionally browsing, and needs charging every night to make sure it doesn't die the next day.- Touch screen incredibly sensitive - When scrolling down, the slightest deviation from a straight line and it will take you who knows where! I find myself contantly pressing the back button. Also when on the phone have accidentally managed to put people on hold by brushing it against my ear!

The OS:+ Looks really good - The Windows format is a winner in my eyes. You can assign colour schemes (no background picture though which is a shame :-() And the tiles can be placed more or less anywhere (or unpinned completely) and changed between 3 sizes. One feature of this phone that I actually prefer to Apple.+ Easy to use. You've got your main screen, where you pin your most used as above, then right swipe, and you've got A-Z listing of all apps loaded.+ Easy to set up email and social accounts.- Can't choose search engine - Automatically comes with Bing linked to the search button on the bottom. I hate Bing, and so renders this button redundant for me. Instead I have had to download the Google app and search this way.- No way of assigning a real song as a ringtone on the handset. This is a seemingly simple task - My phones could do this 10 years ago! Reading on the net implies this is a Windows phone thing rather than Nokia, but even so. Not good enough. So instead, you have to find and use your own software to trim a track to 40s long, make sure its less than 1MB, assign genre as a ringtone, and sync to phone (connected to PC)! What!? This is dumb!

Apps:- Comes with a very effective sat nav!- Lack of apps available. Hardly anything in comparison to Iphone. Also, seemingly basic apps (timer, calculator, notes, weather) are missing and you have to download these yourself from the store (free ones are available though)- Some apps are reaaaaaaaaally slow - Notably Ebay (windows app is really poor compared to iphone version) and Facebook (although FB looks much better on this app than Iphone).

Music player:- No way of deleting songs straight from the handset (but I think this is the case with most smart phones).- Can't make a playlist on the handset - Has to be done on the computer and synced. - Also haven't found a way of rating songs on the handset, which is annoying if you put a new album on and want to delete songs you don't like and can't remember which ones they are!- No tactile way of skipping songs. E.g. when driving. You have to press a button, unlock with a swipe, and find two tiny screen buttons at the top. Not good. Would it be so hard to have a drive mode where the volume button can double up as skip track??- Will only sync to Zune. I've been an avid fan of Windows Media Player for like forever, and am pretty disappointed that its not compatible with that. So its yet another music platform I have to use on my comp which isn't my player of choice (so ratings made when I listen via PC won't be visible when syncing music - pretty annoying)- Inbuilt speakers pretty poor quality- No equaliser to increase bass, as sounds pretty tinny even when plugged in with aux

Obviously all these points are of the extremes of my experience of the phone, if I haven't mentioned it - Its probably ok, and pretty standard.

In all, I'm still on the fence a bit with this phone. I love the Windows format (always preferred it to Apple anyway), but I'm not sure I'd get this phone again. I'd consider an alternative Windows phone, but may well stray to Android and see what thats all about. Then hopefully by the time I come back to Windows there will be more apps and things!

28/04/13 - Edited to add: No instant mute function. So if you need to turn the sound of really quickly, for example you get bored in a library, decide to play a game and 'BOOM' the whole world can hear the twangly music, you have to literally hold the volume buttons down til they hit zero. Thats a bit of a flaw IMO.

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Very good phone at an excellent price.

I wanted an upgrade from my HTC desire which I purchased a few years ago and after looking around I found the Nokia lumia 800. As I have always been an android user I was unsure about the jump to windows phone. I was not sure if it would have all of the features that an android phone gave. I was not disappointed, the phone is so easy to use and it takes no time at all to learn how to use the windows phone software. Everything is self explanatory, not one did I have to look at any instructions, it was just all very easy.

I liked the look of the nokia for many reasons. I liked how the phone came in different colours, how the internal storage was a decent size, 16GB and how you could use free gps sat nav software which is very easy to use. The phone also has an 8 mega pixel camera which takes really good pictures.

I know there is now windows 8 and that is why the price of the phone has been reduced so much but for someone wanting to find a good smartphone with great features at a really good price, you cant go wrong with the Nokia lumia 800.

The only thing that could be improved on the phone is the battery life but I think this is a common thing with all smart phones. I charge my phone every day I do have an extra charging cable which I keep in the car just incase I need to charge on the go.

If you are looking for a very good phone with lots of features at a very good price you cant go wrong with the Nokia lumia 800. I paid much more for my HTC desire a few years ago and this phone is much better at less than half the price. Simple to use and very good value.

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Nokia, sweet Nokia

I've been using the Lumia 800 for a few months now, and I am in love with it.

Like most Nokias, this phone is really sturdy. The plastic casing is very solid and mine has already withstood being dropped several times and still doesn't have a mark on it. I think you'd have to go to some real effort to break this. The screen is tough as well; it's smooth and nice to use with the touch screen, but feels chunky somehow. The phone is quite weighty, which some people might not like, but personally I quite like. I always know if it's in my pocket.

The new model of the Lumia is bigger, but I find this is about the right size. Nice screen size, but still fits comfortably in the hand.

The usability is nice; the tiles took a little getting used to, but now I love how simple they are to use. All the apps load so fast, and there's a good range, if slightly less than with the iPhone. I especially love how easy the main menu is to customise. I can pick exactly what I want and where I want it, and it's dead simple to shuffle things around until I find a layout that suits me.

It's a shame that the phone doesn't come with the ability to use your own music tracks as ringtones, but I did find an app to get round that. Otherwise, I've found the memory size to be good; I've got plenty of music on here with no troubles.

The battery life is about average for a smart phone, I can get about two days out of mine with fairly heavy use, although music playback does chomp the battery.

The camera is nice quality, I find I get really good pictures from this, even after blowing them up to bigger sizes on my computer.

I have found the phone crashes occasionally, but a hard reset sorts it out with no after troubles. I'm not sure what causes the crashes and freezing, but it is only an occasional issue.

All in all, this is a really nice phone, and I would be hard-pressed to find anything wrong it much.

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Best phone I've ever had

I was lucky enough to win a competition some time ago with the prize being an unlocked Nokia Lumia 800, which was quite new at that time. Having generally just had basic phones till then and, coupled with the retail price at the time being £200-£300, I was quite happy needless to say!

Battery life when new was well in excess of two days always on, the touchscreen was responsive and it was altogether a nice looking little beast. I added a cheap £10 a month Giffgaff package and I've never looked back It came preloaded with several apps - maps, browser, eBay, music, et al. - and there are loads more available free in the market place, several of which I added quickly.

The screen is a nice size and even my fingers can type in a message without too many mistakes, something which I've struggled with in the past on other phones. It's a little dated now, but I'm still happily using it and have no reason to change.

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A good all round mobile for a great price

I got this mobile as a replacement to my Iphone. The biggest positive of the Lumia was the price of the contract compared to an Iphone contract.

The phone itself is a stylish phone. It is a slimline phone and is more lightweight to the Iphone. It has a large clear screen which makes it easy to see when you receive a new email or message. The only downside to the screen that the touch screen is very sensitive. It means when you touch the screen to scroll down on an article it sometimes changes to another app.

The Lumia as an Microsoft phone lacks a lot of the apps that are available for Android and Iphone. So if you are not looking for a phone that has apps available to download then the Lumia is for you. Internet access is not user friendly on the Lumia. From personal experience, I have found when clicking a certain link on the webpage it registers a different page to the one I have clicked.

Overall I believe the Lumia is suited to buyers who are not looking to download too many apps as they may not currently be available for the Lumia. The Lumia is for buyers who use Microsoft Office frequently, as the access to programs such as Microsoft Word are very good.

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A great nokia windows phone, very easy to use & to keep intouch with social sites

Brought this phone just before Christmas 2012 from my local o2 shop., after unboxing it & setting it up on my pc with zune (to transfer music,picture etc.) I found the handset very easy to use & the live tiles are very convenient & allow fast access to your favourite apps, contacts & the advantage of being able to update your facebook/twitter status without loading the apps is really great thanks to this feature being built in to the phones os., I could easily take a picture & upload it to facebook in a matter of seconds!the phone has 16gb of built in memory with no sd card slot but for my needs it has plenty of storage., it also has a fm radio built in with good reception & sound quality from the supplied handsfree headset, the phone also came with a gel cover/case which makes the phone very slightly thicker but not too noticeable plus the case does keep the back of the phone from getting scratched etc., while still allowing to use the camera & flash., I found the battery life to be between 4-8 hours while listening to music & watching videos., as with all phones if you play a lot of games etc. the battery will decrease & the inclusion of xbox mobile is one of the reasons I brought this phone there is some great free games out there which are multi player too so give it a try.,all in all I give this phone 5 stars well done nokia

one more thing I thought i'd mention is that the zune software also backs up the phones date including pics etc., which is handy to have if you damage or lose your phone.,

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Brilliant Phone, Must Have

I have had the Nokia Lumia 800 since April 2012, and can honestly say it is one of the best phones that I have ever owned. The simple tile user interface makes navigation really quick and easy. I like the integrated mail tile, which gives me access to all my emails with one simple click.

The marketplace is also a very nice feature. Although it does not give as much choice as the Android Market and Apple App Store, it still does give a nice collection of free games you can download. As well as your traditional social networking apps such as Facebook and Twitter which can be made into a tile for your home screen which again gives quick and easy access to your social feeds.

One of the great new additions to the Nokia Lumia is the Nokia city Lens application. This is really helpful if you are in an unfamiliar city or town and want to find somewhere to eat. you simply open the application and it will point you in the direction of all the restaurants in the area. This also works for hotels too, if you are on a long road trip and need to stop off, then this app could be a real life saver.

The 16Gb memory you get with this phone is also great for storing music. The Nokia music tile gives you quick and instant access to your music. It is basically an iPod too, it holds more songs than an 8GB iPod so you are basically getting an iPod and a phone out of this product.

Overall it is great value. Especially now as the price has rocketed since the new model has came out the Nokia Lumia 920. it is now £125 which considering only a couple of months ago it was £500 the same price as the iPhone !

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Good looking phone but let down by both the soft wear and the the hardwear

Bye bye Nokia I'm sorry to say that I won't be missing you

I am a man who likes his tech toys so I am always chopping and changing my mobiles on a regular basis. I tend to buy them outright rather be locked into a contract for two years since technology moves at such a rapid pace and I like to keep abreast of the latest developments. The last phone I bought was the Nokia Lumia 800 about 6 months ago and as I am now changing to a Nexus 4 I thought I would write a review and share my findings of living with the phone for the past few months.

~~~~~~~~~~ The look ~~~~~~~~~~

I thought I would start with the look of the phone as this was the main reason that I bought it. I was getting sick of having a choice of either black or white when it came to buying phones so when the Lumia 800 came out I was pleased to see that they had added some bright colours to their line-up. I settled on the phone in Cyan which is a bright blue and it is the one thing that I can honestly say that Nokia have got right. It is made up of a solid piece of bright blue polycarbonate with a 3.7 inch Gorilla Glass screen which sort of curves over the front. I absolutely love the look of the phone and the Cyan colour is really vivid and makes it stand out in the rows of black and white phones on the market.

On the back of the phone there is a silver strip of metal with the camera lens and the Nokia logo as well as the camera flash. There are no physical buttons on the front of the phone but on the side there is a dedicated camera button and two volume rockers as well as a button for locking and unlocking the screen. On top there is the headphone jack and two plastic tabs which can be pushed to revel the USB charging port and the SIM card slot. These little plastic tabs are extremely flimsy especially the one that covers the USB port and my one managed to snap off within about 2 weeks even though I tried to be careful with it.

~~~~~~~~~~ Operating System ~~~~~~~~~~

The Lumia 800 runs on the Windows 7 operating system which has a completely different look to it than with the Android and IOS operating systems. Instead of widgets the Windows operating system uses live tiles which are basically what they say. When you download apps etc. you can pin them to the start screen and they become a live tiles which constantly updates itself. I actually really liked the live tiles as they were larger than the widgets I was used to and I really liked the fact that they updated themselves.The one thing about the live tiles which I really didn't like and could never figure out how to change was the fact that my photos would randomly change and be shown on my start screen whenever I unlocked my phone. Some people may like this but I didn't like the fact that I may have had personal photographs floating about the screen that I may not want a random stranger sitting next to me on the train to be able to read.

The main other points about the Windows operating system that you can actually notice are that instead of using the usual Google application found on Android the Windows operating system uses Microsoft owned application so for using the internet they have a tile with a mobile internet explorer and the search engine is Bing. The email app is also set up to be used with Hotmail which was a bit of a pin as I use Gmail and there was no Gmail app to be found on the app store.

~~~~~~~~~~ Apps ~~~~~~~~~~

Talking of apps the selection of apps on offer in the Windows app store was absolutely dire and there was none of the fun of the Google Play or Apple store when searching for something. They have most of the main apps in there but the choice really is very limited and searching the store wasn't an enjoyable experience.

~~~~~~~~~~ Media ~~~~~~~~~~

Now other than texting and phoning I really like to use my phone as a little media machine for when I'm on the train etc. This has to be the worst smartphone that I have used for media. The soft wear that the Lumia uses is called Zune and it really has to be one of the most awkward and least user friendly media syncing systems I have ever used. It was honestly so difficult to figure out and there was nothing intuitive about it in the slightest. It was such a pain anytime that I wanted to put music or videos on my phone that 9 time out of 10 I just didn't bother and used my tablet on the train instead and just listened to whatever music I had been lucky enough to have actually got on the phone in the first place.The biggest bug bear about this phone for me personally was that there was no option for dragging and dropping files which is something that I have got used to over the past couple of years with smartphones. If I wanted anything then I needed to use Zune which was the thing that put me off this phone more than anything else. The copying process for videos takes absolutely ages and you couldn't just decide that you would like some videos for your train journey an hour before you leave as it could sometimes take over an hour to copy across a 25 minute TV show which is ridiculous in this day and age.

If I was lucky enough to actually get a video on the phone then it looked quite good and played well with no lag or stuttering most of the time. The screen is nice but nothing special. It is an Amoled screen and it looks nice and bright but my old Samsung Galaxy S2 blows it out of the water when it comes to vividness and that is a much older phone.The internet generally worked well but I did find the screen a little cramped and I did have to use the zoom option a lot of the time. When I first got the phone I wanted to use it as a wireless modem so that I could connect my laptop and tablet to it when I was out of the house but I was shocked to learn that the Lumia 800 didn't support this function. Luckily Nokia gave a softwear update after a month or so which added this function and it worked really well and my tablet would always connect and not drop off while I was browsing. Unfortunately it is an absolute killer on battery life but a nice feature to have nevertheless.

~~~~~~~~~~ Camera ~~~~~~~~~~

The Lumia 800 has an 8mp camera with a Carl Ziess Lens. This was the one thing about the phone before getting it that I was confident that was going to be good as Nokia has such a good reputation when it comes to the cameras in their phones. Unfortunately the camera didn't live up to my expectations. It functions perfectly well but the pictures are never great from it and again like everything else getting the pictures off the phone requires using the Zune software. The flash is a double zenon one so you would expect that it would be good for low light conditions but it actually is so bright that it can blind you when taking a picture and cause everything to look over exposed. Blurriness was also another thing which seemed to be a pretty frequent problem with pictures taken with the camera.

The one thing that I did like about the camera on the phone was the dedicated shutter button. You can hold the button down when the phone is locked and it will launch the camera app straight away and while this wasn't the fastest shutter button ever it was quicker and easier than unlocking the phone and getting into the camera app.Video was again only ok. It looked a little shaky most times and the sound was terrible but it would do if there was nothing else to use and you wanted to take a quick video of something.

~~~~~~~~~~ Battery Life ~~~~~~~~~~

Battery life on this phone was nothing short of atrocious. Windows phones are supposed to be much less demanding than Android and IOS phones so are supposed to use less power meaning the battery should last longer. When I first got this phone I would have to turn the screen down and use it minimally and I would still be lucky if I got 6 hours of use before it died. Nokia did release an over the air fix for the phone which was supposed to fix the battery issues. It did help to improve them but it still falls way below what I would expect from a modern smartphone. I can now actually use the phone but it still dies within 6 to 8 hours and I would never think of taking this on a long trip without having to take the charger with me too. One thing that might have eased this would have been if I had been able to carry a spare battery with me so that I could change over when needed but unfortunately Nokia in their wisdom decided to make the battery sealed in the back panel which is no removable and while this might look pretty it was a huge pain.

~~~~~~~~~~ Calling and Texting ~~~~~~~~~~

Surprisingly I actually used my phone occasionally for its original intention and made calls on it. For the most part this was pretty good as call quality was clear and the phone had good reception and very rarely dropped any calls when I was on the phone. The only slight thing is that the screen was so sensitive that a few times I was on the phone and my ear would accidentally press the hold button when I was in the middle of a call.

Texing again was fine for the most part. The only thing that I had problem with was when the phone was in portrait mode I found the keyboard to be a tad on the small side and I would quite often press the wrong letter.One thing about this phone for anyone who uses whatsapp is that there is a major problem with it. My friends and I use whatsapp all the time and with this phone it would 50% of the time not notify me if I had a message and I would only find out if and when I actually opened the app to see if someone had messaged me.

~~~~~~~~~~ Price ~~~~~~~~~~

I bought my hand set brand new from Ebay so I paid less than I would have in the shops. The price I ended up paying for it was £220 which I thought was a bit of a bargain at the time.Obviously now I wouldn't pay £20 for the phone but if you do fancy it then there are some good deals to be had and the phone has been reduced significantly in the past few months (because Nokia are trying to flog a dead horse in my opinion) and it can now be had for next to nothing on contract and for as little as £143.96 plus a £10 top up on pay as you go.

~~~~~~~~~~ Conclusion ~~~~~~~~~~

It is a shame that this phone has so many little problems as the potential was there for it to be such a good phone. It looks absolutely beautiful and it works more or less seamlessly most of the time but the operating system and hardwear of the phone just let it down. Nothing is quite as good as it should be, the screen is a little on the small side after getting used to larger phones and it was most noticeable when trying to browse the internet, the battery life is rubbish but the biggest problem with the phone is the Zune softwear which I just found to be absolutely horrible to use.

I was recently looking at the new Nokia Lumia 920 phones and I found myself contemplating buying one as like this phone they look spectacular but after my horrible experience with this Nokia phone I think it will be a long time before I actually purchase one again. I'm glad though that I tried a Windows phone as it has made me realise that I much prefer Android or IOS and will be sticking to these in the future.